Five years after toppling the fanatical Taliban, Hamid
Karzai is expected to sign an agreement for economic assistance from more
than 60 donor countries. The Afghanistan Compact is just the latest of many
plans to restore security to the war-torn nation and revive the fragile
economy. It is a poignant reminder that the Bush administration's promises
to rebuild the country and establish democracy have never been realized.

Afghanistan has been a policy disaster from the get-go.
The country is ravaged by war and unemployment, security beyond the capital
of Kabul is virtually nonexistent, and malnutrition rates among children
are higher than they are anywhere other than sub-Saharan Africa. Now, Karzai,
who has seen his funding from the US slashed year after year, is forced
to take his begging bowl to the world community; asking for the crumbs they
can spare to bandage his failed-state together.

Afghanistan excels in one thing alone; the production
and export of opium, a booming business which now provides 90% of the world's
heroin.

Is this what Bush had in mind when he promised Americans
to rebuild and democratize the battle-scarred country; a modern-day drug-colony,
occupied by legions of indifferent volunteers who rarely venture beyond
their US controlled compounds?

His promise of a Marshall Plan was similar to all of
Bush's promises; just more hot air hissssssing from a punctured tire.

After overthrowing the Taliban Bush made this commitment
to the people of Afghanistan:

"We know that true peace will only be achieved
when we give the Afghan people the means to achieve their own aspirationsWe're
working hard in Afghanistan. We're clearing minefields. We're rebuilding
roads. We're improving medical care. And we will work to help Afghanistan
to develop an economy that can feed its people without feeding the world's
demand for drugsBy helping to build an Afghanistan that is free from this
evil and is a better place in which to live, we are working in the best
traditions of George Marshall. Marshall knew that our military victory against
enemies in World War II had to be followed by a moral victory that resulted
in better lives for individual human beings."

Bush's penchant for hyperbole has not been lost on
the Afghani people.

"The new Afghan government promised us new schools,
clinics, water pumps, but it has done nothing at all. People are so disappointed.
At least the Taliban would grade the roads, build madras's, while this government
has done nothing," said Nyamatullah, Zabul tribal leader.

"This government has done nothing" is a fitting
summary of the Afghanistan failure. The Bush administration had no intention
of rebuilding or democratizing the country, rather the full thrust of the
American effort has been to paper-over the obvious deficiencies of the policy
with glowing media reports. The western media has done an impressive job
in convincing the American people that progress is being made in Afghanistan
when, in fact, the country continues to languish in destitution and chaos.

On a recent trip, Secretary Rumsfeld said that Afghanistan
was "a model" of a growing democracy.

"A model"?

The majority of the new Afghan Parliament is comprised
of warlords and ex-Taliban fighters reintegrated into the system by a reconciliation
program endorsed by the United States. This has weakened the central government
and ensured that the countryside has remained under the control of the regional
warlords. American puppet, Karzai has no power beyond the capital and must
be protected by 40 to 50 U.S. paid bodyguards wherever he goes.

Is this Rumsfeld's model of democracy?

Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice is equally disingenuous
in her praise of Afghanistan's strides towards democracy:

"The transformation of Afghanistan is remarkable
but incomplete, and it is essential that we all increase our support for
the Afghan people."

There's been no "transformation" of Afghanistan.
As the New York Times reports, "Afghanistan does not have a viable
economy. Its government is largely reliant on foreign aid (while) it struggles
with an insurgency" "The country of 25 million people has some
of the worst economic and health indicators in the world. 6 million people
rely on food aid, 80% of the people are illiterate, and there is virtually
no industry."

In the last year the resurgent Taliban have increased
their attacks, further destabilizing areas in the south and prompting President
Karzai to publicly announce that he would provide amnesty for Taliban chieftain
Mullah Omar.

Have him "get in touch" if he wants to talk
peace, Karzai said.

Karzai's remarks show us how far we have come from
the swagger and bravado of George Bush who promised to capture Omar "dead
or alive"? Now even Bin Laden's closest allies are being offered amnesty
in an effort to quell the violence.

What does that say about the administration's claim
that "We will never bargain with terrorists"?

Afghanistan is Bush's dystopia, a failed narco-state
run by American puppets, Islamic fundamentalists and human rights abusers.
The corporate media has done the American people a grave disservice by characterizing
this drug-dependent settlement as a burgeoning democracy. Nothing could
be further from the truth. The Karzai regime has no popular mandate and
will vanish in the first hours after the American occupation ends.

And, it should end immediately.

Like Iraq, American troops have become the catalyst
for hostilities; the focus of blame for the country's grim predicament.
The recent incident of American servicemen burning the corpses of dead Taliban
soldiers has only exacerbated the tensions that exist between the native
Muslims and the Christian occupiers. The cultural divisions, and the violence
they incite, are the inevitable upshot of the imperial project.

The invasion of Afghanistan was sold to the American
people by a silver-tongued executive and a battery of public relations fraudsters.
5 years later we can see that all the hype about "democratic revolution"
and "liberation" was just baseless twaddle. The country is a basket-case
and "ranks among the half-dozen poorest countries in the world".
"with the highest level of malnutrition in the world at 70%."
(Jim Lobe)

This is Bush's definition of success; endless bloodshed
surrounded by grinding poverty.

The Bush administration will never rebuild Afghanistan.
In fact, they are ideologically opposed to "nation building" as
a waste of revenue that can be siphoned off to multinational corporations.
So, too, they are against any form of governance that does not conform to
the economic diktats of the central banks and their satellites at the IMF,
World Bank, and the Federal Reserve.

Afghanistan illustrates the shortcomings of a foreign
policy that depends entirely on war to achieve its objectives. Neither peace
nor security can be achieved under occupation. America needs to withdraw
its troops so that sovereignty can be restored, order can be reestablished,
and the long march towards economic recovery can begin.

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